Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page A3

SATURDAY, WWW.FREEP.COM 3A METRO WASHINGTON Nearly a month after the sequester triggered $85billion in automatic cuts to the federal budget, be hard-pressed to find much evidence in Michigan or elsewhere around the U.S. that anything has changed. Flights been grounded, jobs been lost, and government personnel been sent home en masse. The fact is, not going to be as bad as originally outlined by President Barack administration and his Democratic allies in Congress. But even after a bipartisan deal to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year took some of the sting out of the sequester, it still left many of the cuts in place and state officials wondering precisely which reduc- tions are coming and which most difficult part of the sequestration process has been the state Budget Director John Nixon said.

are still a number of unanswered likely to remain the case for awhile. For instance, on March 4 after the sequester went into effect March Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sent state officials a letter generally outlining the effects that furloughs, hiring freezes and service reductions related to the sequester could cause, including those to Customs and Border Patrol. The deal worked out by House and Senate appropriators and signed by Obama this week added substantial funding to Customs and Border Patrol, but the union representing about 17,000 Border Patrol agents the National Border Patrol Council was still waiting to hear Friday whether there would be furloughs. Without question, some of the effects of the sequester were lessened by passage of the the deal, called thecontinuing resolution, which moved money around inside many departments to avoid some of the harsher reductions. The sequester included a blind, across-the- board cut to all programs, without leaving room for programs that could be discontinued including a no-longer operational space shuttle program, for instance to be defunded and the money used elsewhere.

While the continuing resolution added funding for food inspections, scientific research grants and troop pay, for instance, it still kept in place the $85-billion cut, meaning there will still be reductions. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced civilian defense personnel will still face furloughs, only there will be 14 days without pay instead of 22, and they will begin in June instead of April. How that, along with cuts to equipment budgets and research and development spending, hits personnel at defense contractors in Michigan is up in the air, however. In earlier estimates, as many as 10,000 civil- ian workers in Michigan were expected to face furloughs. And there are more questions than just with defense: Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration went through with plans to close 149 contract air traffic control towers, including those at Coleman A.

Young Municipal Airport, Battle Creek and Marquette. Education spending cuts also remained largely in place, though they be felt until next school year, most likely. Appropriators added $33million to Head Start, but Robin Bozek, executive director with the Michigan Head Start Association, said most of that is dedicated to operating a system set up for ensuring competition between organizations that bid to provide services. She said the additional funds are expected to have little or no effect on the $14-million cut the state was expecting, or the 2,200 fewer children expected to receive services because of the reduction. piece of that pie would be Bozek said.

More than 75,000 Michigan- ders collecting unemployment benefits under a federal program that supplements the are seeingan cut in their checks. is bad said U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, a Flint Town- took part in anews conference on the effects of sequestration Thursday. bad for it comes at a time when we can least afford That may still depend, however, on deciphering exactly what is.

are working closely with our state agencies and their corresponding federal counterparts to determine precisely what the cut levels will be to each said Nixon, the state budget director. at this are still more questions than CONTACT TODD OR AT Michigan still waiting for blow Size, timing of cuts unknown after bipartisan deal By Todd Spangler Detroit Free Press Washington Staff State Budget Director John Nixon, left, said there are questions about the impact. U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, a Flint Township Democrat, said the cuts are bad policy.

You could call them a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde but they were armed with illegally purchased gift cards, not guns. Awild tale about a local couple hitting the road in midnight shopping sprees to buy high-end items from Meijer stores has surfaced in U.S. District Court in Detroit. An electronic paper trail helped federal agents bust the scheme, which, records show, involved buying iPads, expensive vacuums and pricey razors from Meijerstores using gift cards, and then selling the goods to employees at a Southfield gas station. Akey point in the case: The gift cards were purchased with a stolen credit card whose owner lives in Hawaii.

The case involves Detroit- ers Anthony Moore, 33, and his girlfriend, Arianna Landfair, 24, who was released on bond Friday. He was released Wednesday. Both face fraud charges, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Defense lawyers were not available for comment. According to court documents, thescheme worked like this: Moore would pick up his girlfriend just before midnight.

The two then hop- scotched across metro Detroit, hitting Meijer after Meijer for high-end items. Unbeknownst to the couple, astore investigator was watching. An investigator with Meijer Corp. was in a Meijer parking lot at 8 a.m. in Southgate on March 20 when he saw two people pushing a shopping cart.

In the cart was a Dyson Ball vacuum cleaner, one of the most stolen items from Meijer. The couple had anoth- erone of the vacuums in their trunk, and a third one in the back seat. The investigator decided to tail them. The couple went back inside the store and headed to the electronics department, where Moore tried to buy an iPad with multiple gift cards, but the cards were rejected. He then scanned several cards to determine the value on each one, and eventually bought the iPad successfully.

The pursuit continued. The next stop was a Meijer in Lincoln Park. While en route, the investigator did some quick checking and learned that the gift cards Moore had just used were bought the day before at a Meijer in Canton. The cards were part of a $14,000 gift card purchase, paid for with the stolen credit card. Police were called while the couple was at the Lincoln Park Meijer.

They arrived and arrested the pair, but not before Moore pulled off another scam: He bought some high- priced razors. Police searched Moore and found 22 more gift cards on him, several of which were tucked in the ashtray of his car. At the police station, the couple was interviewed by federal agents with the Secret Service. Landfair confessed that Moore had picked her up just before midnight the night before, and the two went on an all-night shopping spree, stopping at eight Meijers. She ended up buying about 10 iPads using $500 gift cards.

She told the agents that Moore told her that he was selling the items to employees at a Southfield gas station. Landfair said she was involved in the scheme for about three to four months; Moore had been doing it for about a year. Moore was interviewed next. He took responsibility for the scamand stated that he was wrong and bad and that his girlfriend had nothing to do with what was going on and that she should be When asked where he got the gift cards, Moore initially said that he met someone on Craigslist, but provide information on the person. When asked for that phone number, Moore said he threw his phone away and know how to contact theperson.

When asked about selling the items at the gas station, Moore stopped talking. CONTACT TRESA BALDAS: TBALDAS Detroit couple face fraud charges in gift card sprees Pricey items were resold, records show By Tresa Baldas Detroit Free Press Staff Writer Detroit Lions legend Lem Barney filed a lawsuit Friday against the Detroit Medical Center and a supervisor there, saying he was harassed and eventually fired from his position as the director of physician relations and recruitment because of his age. The lawsuit, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court, also claimsthatthe DMC violated the Family and Medical Leave Act. Barney had just returned to work after several weeks off, recuperating from back surgery, when he was terminated Feb. 21.

DMC officials reviewed the lawsuit Friday but declined comment. Barney, 67, a Pro Football Hall of Famer who played for the Lions in 1967-78, was recruited by the DMC for the public relations spot at Sinai- Grace Hospital in 2006. According to the lawsuit, beginning in 2009, a supervisor, Sherrie Killebrew, showed of Barney and began urging him to leave his job. you start thinking about the lawsuit quotes Killebrew askingBar- ney. in your 60s and you made a lot of money as a football you just retire Killebrew could not be reached for comment Friday.

Barney explained that his pension was small and that he did not plan to retire untilhe turns70, the lawsuitsaid. His pay eventually was cut from $80,000 to $60,000 and then to $30,000. Barney said his position was reduced to a where he was assigned to hand out parking passes for families of patients undergoing surgery. The harassment continued, the suit claims. Sometimes patients and their families would recognize him and ask for an autograph.

When Barney, known for never turning down a fan, provided autographs, he was reprimanded by Killebrew, according to the suit. here to sign she told him according to the suit. Killebrew prohibited Barney from signing autographs, which left him the suit says, alleging only motivation was to demean Supervisors told him that he was being fired because he had been rude to a family member, a claim he denies in the lawsuit. The suit seeks in excess of $25,000 and calls the actions an textbook discrimination on the basis of In an e-mail to the Free Press on Friday, Barney of Commerce Township said, despise the thought of litigation and did not want to sue DMC, but they left me with no choice. I repeatedly told my supervisor I needed to keep working, but she thought I should retire to my fat NFL pension.

Of course, if I had a fat NFL pension, I would have, but I needed to Livonia attorney James Acho, in an e-mail to the Free Press, said, last two years of employment, he was demeaned the way nobody should be, much less a Detroit icon who has spent nearly 50 years in this city treating people the right way and spreading goodwill. DMC should be ashamed of how he was CONTACT L.L. BRASIER: LBRASIER By L. L. Brasier Detroit Free Press Staff Writer Lem Barney Ex-Detroit Lion files discrimination suit against DMC HAZMAT TEAM SUSPENDED: Genesee County has shut down its hazardous materials response team as state officials investigate potential problems with the unit.

The Flint Journal reports the decision leaves the county without its own such team for the first time since 2002. The state wants to know whether 28 members on the team have had required physical exams and that the breathing equipment they use has been tested to ensure it fits properly. Sheriff Robert Pickell says the team have the money to pay for physicals. Press GOOD GOOEY FUN PHOTOS BY ANDRE J. FREE PRESS Children scoop up sweet treats during the 29th annual Wayne County Parks Marshmallow Drop on Fridayat Nankin Mills at Hines Park in Westland.

More than 20,000 marshmallows were dropped from a helicopter to thousands of children at the park and at Elizabeth Park in Trenton. Children, such as Katie Reeves, 8, of Lincoln Park, Bray- len Crump, 4, of Taylor, marshmallows and tradedthem for a prize. The event is sponsored by Trenton Parks and Recreation, ITC Holdings and Taylor Ford..